ART BETS

This melding of socio-cultural activists is the focus of Dustin Spagnola’s newest series of paintings, currently showing at The Satellite Gallery. For those familiar with Spagnola’s work, don’t expect portrayals of the Civil Rights leaders and African American cultural icons that the he’s been painting for the past few years — such hagiography is left behind in this show.

In its place are black-and-white cutouts of protesters, past and present. His backgrounds serve as a murky, tear-gassed landscape for a dozen or more figures, frozen in mid-air to kick in invisible windows, hurl Molotov cocktails and twist with outstretched arms. Their bodies are cropped and rotated in a way that give the look of a dramatic, masked and hooded ballet. Through May 13 at 55 Broadway St. — Kyle Sherard